Alpha Pig

Our son LOVES Super Why.  He watches it religiously.  Truth be told, this is how he's learned all of his alphabets.  From A to Z, he's gotten them all down.....even by site.   Our favorite letter is 'W' because he pronounces it, 'gurgle gurgle yoo'.   Ha! Hilarious.   And of course, his favorite character is no other than 'Alpha Pig'....well because he's the character that's all about 'abc's'. 

Super Why is also very good when we need breaks in 30 minute increments.  I have a good feeling that his love love for letters will also turn into a genuine love for reading...Smart boy!

What I've Been Up To

We've been super busy as of late.  We've been blessed to meet some pretty cool families and document what we hope are some very special moments in times for these wonderful people.  Needless to say, I haven't had much time at all to blog here on this page.   So, when you don't see much going on here, feel free to go on over to my website.  MaddieGracePhotography.com.    Who knew that running your own business would take so much time?

Here are some of the latest portraits and headshots that I've recently taken.

Sun Bitten: Severe Sun Burn:: Day 1

My good buddy at work took off for a few days to go and climb mountains again in Colorado.  Before he left, he talked to me about some cool gear that he was about to purchase to ensure he didn't get frostbitten.  One of these items was a thermal mask he was going to pull over his head.  

So fast forward a little bit.  He comes back into the office and this is what we get.  A Freddie Krueger lite version of himself. Everyone that stopped by yelled some version of , "Whoa! dude, what happened to you?"  Well, he said that it was much warmer as they approached the summit of the mountain that he had expected and he decided to go without with headcovering he'd purchased.  However, the sun was nice and bright.  So it was still pretty cold up there, but he still got sunburned.  Worse case I've ever seen with my own eyes.  As you can see, there are all this big crackly chunks of skin just waiting to peel off.    Reminds me of that part in Austin Powers: Goldmember where Goldmember pulls this nasty chunk of skin off of his face and says, "That's a keeper!" as he placed the skin in a keep-safe receptacle for a nice snack at a later time. 

I decided to take a picture each day as his face healed.  Crazy Stuff Right?

Nikon D60: Dead Shutter

The camera, my Nikon D60, which was my first in the world of DSLR photography took a turn for the worst.  At the very end of a portfolio building headshot session, it went out like a light.  It was very strange because the shutter sounded like it was struggling for a few shots, kinda like I was shooting at a really slow shutter speed; say 1 full second.  But I was at a shutter speed of 1/80th of a second.  Then I pressed the shutter one last time and the whole thing froze up and I got an error message on my screen.

I went online to see if anyone else experienced thins locking up of sorts and it was a pretty common problem.  I followed some instructions to oil up the gears that allow the shutter mechanism to operate smoothly, but there was nothing I could do for it.  So at some point I need to get it repaired.  Yet, I'm grateful.  I learned a very valuable lesson that day that I'm glad I didn't learn in front of a paying client.  You MUST have a backup camera in the event that something like this happens.

So soon I'll be getting the D60 repaired and it will be my backup camera.  In the meantime this seemed to be the perfect time to upgrade to a non-entry level camera. I was so excited when I got this box in the mail I could barely contain myself.  More bells and whistles and gadgets, but I knew it would take me at least 2 weeks to get used to the thing.  Learning to adjust the Aperture and ISO on this thing took some time.  Dare I say I had to read the manual to figure out how to manually select a single autofocus point.  Who know that switch was also a button.  One thing I also know for sure is that a better camera does not make a better photographer.  Actually, a better lens does more to make better images than a "better camera".  A better camera just lets you do some things faster. Well a better camera does let you capture sharper, higher shutter speed images in low light with less noise.  It might let you take images at faster shutter speeds too.  But it won't necessarily let you take more interesting photos.

I am truly thankful for  my little D60.  It has taken me from a novice who took snapshots of my firstborn to competent professional, who still has a ton to learn.

Quick Fridge Makeover

I think it's always nice when my wife who sometimes spends quite a bit of time on Pinterest actually implements an idea.  This is pretty cool in my opinion.  She went to Target...I think and found a bunch of clearanced plastic table mats and cut them to size to fit each shelf in the fridge.  When it comes time to clean up, you just pull them out, wash them up and put them back it.   It sure does beat taking the whole shelf out.  Plus on top of that, I thinks it adds a bit of style. 

Mustachless

As you can tell, I didn't have anything else to blog about on this particular day other than the fact that I needed a haircut and I decided to start my mustache over.

See i have this nervous thing that i do where i curl the corners of my mustache.   As a result, I end up pulling a good chunk of my whiskers out which causes my mustache to be a bit thin in a couple of areas.  Well I got tired of it and decided to just start the whole thing over.  My wife is never happy when I do this.  She gives me a hard time and tells me that i look crazy.   Probably it's because I have so much space between my nose and my upper lip.

So, after taking about 40 or so images with my remote, I settled in on the best image that I took of myself.  Hey, when I don't have anyone else around to practice on, I just use myself.  It's hard because I can't, of course, see myself in the viewfinder.  Especially, when the intent if to make sure that I get sharp focus on my eyes.

Anyway, so feel free to tell me.  Do i look crazy to you?

Kids at the Doctor's Office

Tess had a Dr's appointment, so I got off work to so I could hang out with the kids.  After about 20 minutes of sitting in the wait area, it was TIME TO GO.  The 2 year old can only sit still for about 10 minutes before it's On and Popping.  He's way to rambunctious to sit for long periods of time.  So, off to the hall we went.  Thankfully, right outside the office door is this long hall that seems to have quite a few vacant offices.  Boy, did these to run up and down that hall.  They sat in the hall, screamed at times in the hall.  Straight up, wore me out.

It's always funny how people walk by your kids and smile and say, "They're so precious!".  At this moment, I was thinking, "That's because they aren't yours!".  After the 2 year old, who didn't walk very well at the time, fell for the 10th time and climbed on every chair he could find, Tess FINALLY comes walking out of the office door, when he decided that he wanted to attempt to dart into an elevator that was going up instead of down.  I think he should have been born while we were still in our 20's.  God Bless people who have children closer to 40.  Especially boys and the occasional tomboy.

God's Word is a Treasure

The Bible talks about how the Word of God is like a treasure that a man finds in a field.  Then he hides it and goes back to the field to purchase it.  Honestly, I'm finding that as much of this treasure that I THINK i know I have, I end of finding out that there's still so much more of the treasure that I have yet to uncover.

During school, on this particular day, Handful is learning a very valuable lesson pretty early.  God's Word is definitely a treasure, and when you find it, hide it in your heart.. then share it with everyone willing to receive it.

Surprised and Grateful

In January, I did corporate headshots for a large team in Frisco.  On the 2nd day of the shoot I was met with a kind token of appreciation.  I find it amazing when people go out of their way to do something that they don't have to do.  It reminds me that God is real and moves me to make sure that I "Pay it Forward".  It makes me think about how if we all did more stuff like this, we might have less violence in the world.  I'm moved and inspired.  

Here are a few images from the shoot.

Fevers and Colds

For a few days back in January, Gumz was getting hit left and right with a runny nose.  One good thing is he has no qualms about taking medicine....of any kind.  When children are under the age of 2, the most you can give them is some pain medication for fevers or benadryl (Target Brand) when they have a runny nose.

Since then, we are battling colds every 2 to 3 weeks after we've been to church.  Is that too often for kids to get sick?